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ACCOUNTS impressions so far?

Hello again ACCOUNTS beta testers! So far 21 of you have registered the ACCOUNTS program, which is great.

However, although a few of you have found and reported bugs, which is also great, almost nobody has given me any general or specific impressions of the program so far.

Doing so would be extremely important, because I need to know whether I am on the right track with the program. Feedback (on the features that are in it so far) that would be extremely helpful include:

Does the program work in a way that would fit for your organization?

Do the windows so far seem intuitive (or clear enough after reading the help)?

Do the design decisions, like how funds are set up and associated with accounts, the 3-level account structure, etc., seem reasonable?

If you have read any of the Help, was it clear enough for bookkeeping amateurs (who I expect to be the majority of the users of the program)?

Any impressions on the “Accounting Concepts” help page?

How do the reports look so far?

Anything else you can think of!

I trust you understand that I am very much open to both negative and positive comments! (Though negative ones will be more influential, obviously.)

Many thanks in advance for whatever feedback you can give (as detailed as possible). You can Comment on this post, or reply by email.

1. In general.. I like the simplicity and general approach that the program takes..
2. The help screens.. particularly the one on accounting concepts seems good.. right level of detail. Clear and easy to understand.
3. I like the way that funds are handled as a normal part of transactions.
4. In the Fund report.. only one of my funds was shown (General).. was that just a simplification or a bug
5. As you know, I am not an accountant, so I can’t really comment on how faithful it all is to accounting norms in terms of how everything is reported, etc., but it seems to make sense.

The register for input and the flexibility of the reports will be very interesting to see, as these will tell a lot of how easy it will be to use and how well it will fit individual situations..

I am impressed so far..

I hope you are getting more comments than just mine.. there seemed to be a lot of enthusiasm for you doing this. It will be a shame if thee is no involvement in helping you test out ideas.

Great, David, thank you very much. I will be releasing the version with the register window today.
In terms of the Fund reports, the Fund Income Statement report only shows funds on which there have been transactions in the selected period on its associated income and expense accounts. If you have a fund on which there have been such transactions that isn’t showing a report, please let me know. The Fund Summary report, in this next version, shows balances and net income for all funds, whether or not they have transactions.

Unfortunately I am gone for most of the summer and will not have a chance to do much testing. However I have set up a chart of accounts – that went fairly well. When I am back home in a couple of weeks (for a few days) I will try to find time to input some transactions and see how that goes. I appreciate all the work you are putting into this and will certainly make an effort to test the program and offer feedback when I can.

Just went in and created a few expense accounts to use for a transaction entry. When I was in the register to record a deposit, I had all of the detail entered then realized that I did not have an revenue account. I had to cancel everything and go back to the chart of accounts. It would be great to have a “quick add” function to be able to create income and expense accounts when needed within the register.

Another easier option, by the way, would have been to enter the transaction with one incorrect account (the one that should be the revenue account that is missing), save it, go add the account, then come back and edit that transaction to correct the account.